Russian spies “sleepers” who built public profiles in social networking; Update: “covert” videos added

posted at 9:30 am on June 30, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

The case of the Russian spies seems like such a quaint anachronism that it’s easy to dismiss out of hand. The Associated Press report today on the femme fatale of the ring, a 28-year-old woman using the name Anne Chapman, doesn’t help readers take it much more seriously. The AP has a picture of Chapman from a Russian alumni website with her dressed as a princess, and her rather public profile in the US suggests that she may never have lost that attitude:

Anna Chapman has been called the femme fatale of a spy case with Cold War-style intrigue — a striking redhead and self-styled entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and mused on her Facebook page, “if you can dream, you can become it.”

Chapman’s American dream, U.S. authorities say, was a ruse.

The 28-year-old Chapman, they say, was a savvy Russian secret agent who worked with a network of other operatives before an FBIundercover agent lured her into an elaborate trap at a coffee shop in lower Manhattan.

Though the U.S. has branded the operatives as living covertly, at least in Chapman’s case, she had taken care to brand herself publicly as a striver of the digital age, passionately embracing online social networking by posting information and images of herself for the world to see.

Prosecutors have charged Chapman and 10 other suspects with following orders by Russian intelligence to become “Americanized” enough to infiltrate “policymaking circles” and feed information back to Moscow.

If Russia’s intelligence agencies think that building a Facebook page is the best way for its agents to remain covert, we have nothing much to fear from this spy ring. Apparently, the FBI agrees. According to this article, the FBI had been tracking the sleepers for years, only arresting them when they attempted to leave the US. Until then, the US was happy to allow them to operate, probably because they had made themselves obvious, and arresting them would only require Russia to replace them with others and force the FBI to track them down.

Interestingly, none of them have been charged with espionage, which would carry severe sentences on conviction. Instead, they’ve been charged with operating as foreign agents without registering, which carries a maximum of five years. If that remains their most serious charge (one man got arrested in Cyprus for money laundering, which carries a potentially longer term), it would seem to indicate that this ring didn’t end up with anything valuable to transmit back to Moscow.

The exposure of Russian spies should not surprise anyone. The Cold War may be 20 years gone, but Russian espionage predated the Cold War. Besides, nations want and need intelligence on their friends and quasi-friends as well as their enemies. Anyone who thinks we don’t have intelligence assets in Russia at this moment is utterly naive. We may even have sleepers in Russia, but if we do, let’s hope that they’re not on the Russian equivalent of MySpace.

Which brings us back to the President’s reaction about the arrests of the Russian agents: “Not happy.” “Not happy” that the FBI is doing its job? “Not happy” that the arrests were made only days after President Obama had an “upbeat meeting” with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev? Both explanations betray an American President more concerned with the optics of “resetting” U.S.-Russian relations than with the manifold reasons why this relationship has been, and will remain, difficult. …

The bottom line is that Russia is reasserting itself as a reincarnation of its Czarist past—and there is little relationship for the U.S. to “reset” here. The Russians have their interests, we have ours—pretending otherwise won’t change that, other than to encourage the Russians with our weakness, as President Obama did when he made our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic “not happy” by unilaterally canceling the missile defense agreement the U.S. had with them.

T0 be fair, I think that Obama was “not happy” with the espionage, not the arrests. The rest of DeVore’s commentary is spot-on. Be sure to read it all.

Update III: Actually, DeVore is more right than I was on the previous point, as the New York Times reported:

“After years of F.B.I. surveillance, investigators decided to make the arrests last weekend, just after an upbeat visit to President Obama by the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said one administration official. Mr. Obama was not happy about the timing, but investigators feared some of their targets might flee, the official said.”

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Spies caught but no espionage charges. Am I the only one that finds this unusual? I mean, what do spies do but commit espionage and if they haven’t how can they be spies? Could all of this just be another planned diversion from the real problems, like the oil leek? Just wondering…

Spies caught but no espionage charges. Am I the only one that finds this unusual? I mean, what do spies do but commit espionage and if they haven’t how can they be spies? Could all of this just be another planned diversion from the real problems, like the oil leek? Just wondering…

docdave on June 30, 2010 at 10:28 AM

Spies aren’t criminals. No one should be punished for serving his/her country. We have people in Russia collecting intelligence too, you know.

Spies caught but no espionage charges. Am I the only one that finds this unusual? I mean, what do spies do but commit espionage and if they haven’t how can they be spies? Could all of this just be another planned diversion…
docdave on June 30, 2010 at 10:28 AM

This had been going on for TEN FREAKING YEARS? And, as near as I can tell, they had developed no critical contacts or access to sensitive information.

According to the article, the only thing they were guilty of (not counting the “assigment” an FBI agent gave one of them) is sending cryptic messages back and forth.

Apparently these people weren’t trained to do anything except leave a highly conspicous trail of suspicious activity.

Spies caught but no espionage charges. Am I the only one that finds this unusual? I mean, what do spies do but commit espionage and if they haven’t how can they be spies? docdave on June 30, 2010 at 10:28 AM

They were trying to effect policy not steal secrets or blow things up, hence no espionage.

Too many people are thinking James Bond “find the plans to the next secret fighter plane” secret agents, when selecting the US politicians and shaping policy is better for our enemies in the long run.

Which is more effective for an enemy of the US, information on where military tanks are or helping to select the next President of the US (with the form of financial aid, contacts, etc.) or writing legislation that aids the enemy in some way; i.e. going so far in debt the US can’t afford its military, directing foreign aid away from a country the enemy does not like (say the Ukraine or Georgia).

Follow the money and contacts these spies employed.
Any work on political campaigns? Donated money?

Really? Why does Russian even need spies and espionage anymore when they already have Communist infiltrators in the White House including the oval office, who are doing a great job destroying our economy and society.

JimGeb excellent point. With Obama and his entourage in the White House, Nancy Pelosi in the House and Harry Reid in the Senate, it’s as if Putin hand-picked the American leaders.

The only answer seems to be that old habits die hard. Why was a stupid Russian spy (1950s) arrested for mapping the NYC Subway System when, for a little spare change, he could have purchased a NYC subway map that showed far more detail than he could ever gather.

And as far the femme fatale. She learned about American secrets. Soon she’ll learn about American dykes!

If you want your spies to ‘go native’, and blend in with maximum efficiency with the rest of the population, then they do as the Romans do. I seriously hope you don’t think what alerted authorities to their activities wasn’t Facebook. I seriously doubt they were disclosing that they were FSB operatives conducting espionage in the United States. Whatever it was that got them targeted for suspicions that were later confirmed wasn’t that.

What I’m pissed off about is the fact that they’re not being charged the way they should be. Each and every one of them should be facing the death penalty for espionage, or minimally, life in a federally-controlled prison. Our president and AG are spineless wimps, and as a such endangering the US though their cowardice. Even if they don’t have the balls to give these people what they deserve (death after harsh interrogation), they could at least imprison them for life. Now, we see charges that aren’t much more impressive than first-time drunk-driving charges. Both Obama and Holder need to be impeached, impeached, IMPEACHED.

I am a cold warrior, and I can tell you that the Cold War has started again. With Ronaldus Magnus and GW Bush gone, the 2nd Cold War has started, now that all we’ve got to speak for us are leftists and wimps that are too cowardly and spineless to stand up to the Soviets (yeah, I still call them SOVIETS, because that’s what they are). The Reds are not afraid of Obama. They laugh behind his back, they laugh in his face, because he’s a damned joke. Soviet hardliners were embarrassed by the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, and as far as they were concerned, he couldn’t die fast enough. American hard-liners’ embarrassment is now here: the Obama Regime. The Soviets brazenly violate American airspace by flying bombers near Alaska. They violate our territorial waters by having ballistic missile subs surface off our East coast. They violate the airspace of allies (England). They openly threaten us, should we attack Iran. They arm our enemies (Venezuela, Iran; possibly the Norks). When are people going to wake up to the fact that the Bear is still here, and still a menace? Their prime minister is, as McCain called him ‘an unrepentant secret policeman‘: the former head of the KGB, which now masquerades as being something else, now that they’re called the “FSB”. The Soviets and their quasi-buddies the Red Chinese are getting rich off oil, while America tries to pretend oil doesn’t exist, here, and continues to fatten our enemies (Venezuela and muslims) with our money, buying from them.

We cannot tolerate Obama’s spinelessness and cowardice, anymore. Our AG more closely identifies with the enemy, than with the American people, as exemplified by his staunch defense of murderous terrorist thugs, pardons of terrorists that are openly unrepentant, and now, his slap-on-the-wrist charges against SOVIET SPIES that were tasked with penetrating our legislative and policy-making circles for the purpose of gathering intel for the KGB/FSB.

Russia has made a 180 with its stance on Iran. This impacts their long history of goodwill with Iran (a big potential troublemaker) and with the Muslim world, and impacts their commercial interests in weapons deals and other spheres.

This spy thing is really needless, and a big awkward distraction. Consider the following:

1) There is spying going on by both sides currently. So freakin’ what? Everyone does it, everyone knows it, and everyone knows that everyone knows it. So why bring it up right now? Why announce it? Why publicize it?

2) China is the most active country in terms of international espionage. They target Canada as well, and they are the biggest perpetrators in this field. So, why expose in public a Russian ring but not a Chinese one?

It’s really a dumb move by whatever moron out there that has some kind of agenda.

I can only see one good thing out of it – it reminded people that [allegedly] Israel is not the only one to fake and steal passports of other nations. In fact I remember only a few months ago CSIS has smoked out a Russian spy in Canada. He stole the identity of a dead Canadian. The difference between Israel and Russia, though, Russia’s concerns are spying for the sake of spying. They just want to be in the know. For Israel, they [allegedly...] do this as part of the war on terror, to execute a terrorist.

I’d like to see a public flogging of Russia by all the affected countries with the stolen passports. Yeah I know, don’t hold your breath.

Yep, this all fits in with Obowma and his crusade against nukes. He’s pretending like it’s the Cold War again, “fighting” an enemy that Reagan (and Thatcher and John Paul and company) already defeated.

It’s all so sad and pathetic.

There are far bigger threats that Barry is ignoring or handling wrong, but they are pushing this Russia angle.

NICOSIA, July 1 (Xinhua) — Cyprus police on Thursday posted a picture of missing alleged spy Robert Christopher Metsos, considered by the American authorities to be a high ranking member of an 11-man ring spying upon the United States for the Russian government.

“We have issued an arrest warrant against Metsos for disobeying a court order to report to a police station”, Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said.

He added police are requesting information from the public which might lead to his arrest.

The suspect was described as of medium build, balding with grey hear, rimless spectacles and a neat moustache.

The picture posted by Cyprus police was taken in Cyprus two days ago, shortly before he was released on bail.